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Numbers of the Chinese river dolphin were said to be so few that the species was thought to be unable to reproduce and declared ‘functionally extinct’ in 2006.

But 20 million years after it first migrated from the Pacific Ocean to the sprawling Yangtze River, one of the majestic white-grey creatures was said to have lept out of the water in a moment of joy for amateur conservationists who claimed to have witnessed the spectacle.

“I saw most of the body, and the second time around I saw its mouth and head,” Song Qi, the leader of a research team that had been scouring a 500 mile stretch of the river told media outlet Sixth Tone after the apparent sighting.

The part-time researcher said members of his team on another boat that was nearer the dolphin saw it emerge three times, adding that altogether six people saw the animal.

Decades of economic growth have left China’s main waterways heavily polluted, but rising river traffic and over-fishing are thought to be more at fault for the sharp decline in what is known in China as ‘baiji’ - or "the Goddess of the Yangtze".

The river – which snakes four thousand miles from its source to just north of the commercial hub of Shanghai - was populated by thousands of dolphin’s fifty years go, but only about 400 were thought to exist in the late 1980s while only 13 sightings were recorded in 1997.

But Mr Song’s expedition team – which was made up of hobbyists rather than experts - spotted an aquatic animal that appeared to be a baiji dolphin in Wuhu, in China’s eastern Anhui province, on Tuesday last week.

The long-snouted creature was apparently seen emerging from the water at a distance of about 100 metres from one of the research team’s boats, and 300 metres from another.

The amatuer conservationists put a sonar detector in the water in the hope of recording sounds from the animal, but did not have time to photograph it.

The team is left with no conclusive proof that what they saw was a Baiji, but experts have been dispatched to search for more evidence of the dolphin, Chinese media say. Scientists from the China Academy of Sciences (CAS) are currently analysing the sonar data.

There has been cynicism on Chinese websites that the ‘sighting’ was a ploy to secure more funding for the research.

But some experts say the freshwater dolphin could defeat the odds and re-emerge as a familiar site on the Yangtze.

“We cannot rule out the possibility that the Baiji dolphin will be seen again on the Yangtze River and we are looking forward to its reappearance,” Wang Ding, from the research institute of aquatic animals at CAS, told the observer.net website.

Mr Song, who works in the publishing industry, led a team of more than 20 volunteers who searched an 800 kilometre (500 mile) stretch of the river from September 30 until last Friday, the news portal said.